Resettlement App

Refugee Resettlement, Simplified

Despite the urgency of the matter, the refugee resettlement process often consists of months and months of waiting, hours of preparation, bottomless stacks of forms and materials, and countless interviews and appointments.

The International Rescue Committee came to ISL looking for a digital solution that would bridge the gap between pre-departure and post-arrival refugee resettlement experiences, and increase comprehension around core cultural transition information. A key tenet of IRC’s cultural orientation program for refugees is self-sufficiency— but given the stress, complexities, and information overload that go along with the resettlement process, that vital information can be difficult to process and retain over time. The result was Settle In.

Our Mission

Design a mobile app to complement the in-person cultural orientation refugees receive at their resettlement offices with more accessible content and resources.

App Preview

Welcome to Settle In

Purpose
Gamification
Educational Media
Interactive
Badges & Awards

The Research

Our Designs were Driven by Insights

In order to thoughtfully approach the challenge at hand, we embarked on a comprehensive discovery phase that included interviewing and surveying stakeholders around the globe, comparative analyses, familiarizing ourselves with cultural orientation curriculum, and lots and lots of research.

Upon completion, we arrived at a set of strategic insights that ultimately defined our UX and design direction for the entire product.

Hearing so many unique perspectives during the caseworker and refugee interviews really reinforced the idea that no two resettlement experiences are alike—and that our design was going to have to be flexible.
— Kim Stockley, UX Strategist

The Strategy

Repetition is Key

The fact that refugees experience so much information fatigue during their resettlement journey largely informed our gamification and content strategy in that we knew we needed to design a system that would allow refugees to revisit material over time in formats that aligned with their unique learning styles.

We implemented the Tell, Show, Do, Apply learning model as a lesson framework for its proven ability to help users retain information over time. The sheer simplicity and efficacy of the Tell, Show, Do, Apply model naturally lends itself to mobile app design. This framework served as our North Star when deciding how to approach content and questions formats for our lessons.

The User Experience

We Let the Users Control Their Experience

To many, refugee resettlement is a sensitive, controversial process—especially from a privacy standpoint. Due to user confidentiality precautions, it was too risky to store personal information in the application. Instead, we made it easy for users to skip around to lessons that interest them or pick up where they left without having to log in. Flexibility was the cornerstone of our approach to user experience, and proved to be a fun design challenge to overcome.

From the Client

I can’t think of a single conversation that wasn’t reflected in the end product.
— Jason Crislip, Director, Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange, International Rescue Committee

The Design System

The Intersection of Beauty and Accessibility

We began by branding and naming the application, landing on Settle In – a reminder to the user that the app is meant to be a comforting mechanism to own and understand your resettlement process. From there we designed a universal iconography set, which mimicked airport way-finding, and a color scheme, which was devoid of colors representative of any particular nation.

Onboarding & Badges

Onboarding & Badges

Custom Badges. Personalized Onboarding.

Brand Evolution

Initial Style Tiles

Bidirectional Design

To account for English and Arabic speakers, we created a design system that enabled both left-to-right and right-to-left reading across the app and integrated curriculum. We integrated animated tool tips that added contextual hints for non tech-savvy users, prompting them using motion (rather than language) to access Settle In’s features.

Bidirectional Design

Bidirectional Design

Watch Right-To-Left In Action

The Feedback (Usability Testing)

Usability Tests Led to UI Optimizations

Before finalizing any UX or visual design decisions, we tested our prototype with real users who had recently resettled to the United States. While we did uncover a handful of UI design optimizations, the usability tests ultimately validated our hypothesis that the gamification format was an effective learning framework. Users were extremely receptive to the various question and answer formats, and expressed that having access to this type of information throughout their resettlement journey would have been extremely helpful.

The Outcome

That’s a Wrap! For now.

Up Next: Phase 2!

The first iteration of Settle In launched in the Google Play and App Stores in March 2018. After a hell of a launch party with our clients and IRC stakeholders, we talked through project wins and opportunities at a full-team retrospective and started looking ahead to Settle In, Phase 2. Stay tuned!